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| Give J&K true democracy | | |
One again the Peoples Democratic Party has called for a chance to its self rule formula and once again the critics in ruling coalition and elsewhere have ridiculed the idea dubbing it as many things including secessionist. Why don’t all of them join hands for real democratic empowerment of people at grassroots through Panchayats, an institution reduced to ridicule by all major political players.
The question of Kashmir issue, which New Delhi discusses with Islamabad and the world watches over has been there since 1947-48 but there was no violence or local armed rebellion till 1988-99. It was essentially a situation provided by this side in the late 1980s which Pakistan utilized to its full and added a, so far, unending era of violence to the history of Kashmir issue. The facts have been well documented and debated that it was derailment of democracy in 1987 elections which triggered a wave of disappointment among hundreds and thousands of the natives of Kashmir. Even before corrective measures could be taken, Pakistan took advantage of the situation mobilized many of them against the Indian state. Thus began the armed insurgency which is though on wane but not completely out. There was, however, one watershed event in the 20-year long history of militant violence in Jammu and Kashmir. The glorious event arguable was the 2002 assembly elections which restored democratic institutions and offered competitors a chance to battle against each other in most fair, free and transparent manner. No doubts were cast on the results. Looking at the statistics of violence over past many years it comes out that militancy related violence is on constant decline for last seven years. Since 2002, militancy related incidents have been recording an impressive decline of 25 to 30 per cent over every previous year. We are sure, the social scientists and strategic analysis shall discover it at some point in time that the reason for this decline in violence is essentially traced in the strengthening of democratic institutions in 2002. Once the dissenting people were given to understand that they stand a fair chance in democracy, the majority among them shunned the gun and joined the mainstream discourse. That simply is the power of democracy which the present day Jammu and Kashmir government must understand. In last few years there has been a talk of self rule which has been vehemently opposed by many. Some of the opponents of self rule proposal have gone to the extent of dubbing it as anti-national proposal. The best way of offering a counter the self rule proposal could have been by devolving powers to grassroots through Panchayati Raj institutions. This is something the opponents of self rule have failed to promise. While the propounder of the self rule formula, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed himself dithered over his promise of conducting Panchayat elections, when he was Chief Minister, his successor Ghulam Nabi Azad exhausted all his energies in countering the self rule. One of the major promises made by Omar Abdullah during his poll campaign to hold Panchayat elections in time bound manner but after romping to power he appears to be on back foot. Now since the government from its last serious engagement of the year, the assembly session which ended in Srinagar Tuesday, the next major priority should be conducting Panchayat elections.
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